Eye For An Eye
by Maya Beebop
Summary: A girl is maimed and is told she can be restored...for a high price.  But when she pays the price, she finds it included more than just the original amount.  It might just make her lose her humanity.  Set before the movie.
1. Dragon's Eye

This story is set before Draco meets Bowen. So, Draco is, in fact, unnamed. He will be referred to as "The Dragon" until further notice.

"Dratted wound acting up…"

The dragon scratched at his chest. The scale was burning like it always had, but now it itched as well. He raised a claw and absentmindedly scratched the spot, but he only succeeded in making it hurt more. The dragon winced and put his hand down, looking for some water to soak in.

He was concentrating on finding water so hard, he almost didn't hear the sharp intake of breath behind him. He turned his head around to see the stunned face of a human quickly disappearing behind a rock.

Grinning slightly, he turned back around and played stupid. He knew the human wasn't going anywhere. It was sitting just behind that boulder, and-…

But suddenly, he heard a muffled scratching sound. He turned to his right and saw the same human, clambering behind another rock and out of sight, almost ten yards away from where he expected it to be! This one was fast and tricky.

_Might be bad if it's a knight wanting to make a name for itself…_ the dragon thought idly.

He stood on his four legs and shot a fireball just above a human's height level over the boulder.

"You may as well come out. Dragon's aren't stupid, you know," he commented. "A knight won't be able to fight one of us if he's cowering behind a rock."

A pain shot through his left thigh. He flipped his head around to see the quivering shaft of an arrow sticking out of his leg. Startled, he plucked it out with his claws and held it up.

Something was strange about it. He examined it and discovered that it was tipped differently; the arrow part was sharply fashioned metal tipped with some sort of strange stone. He thought it might be mica or shale, but it smarted painfully in his leg, which was what he expected it was meant to do.

"I told you to come out! Little arrows won't do much but make me mad," he hissed to the darkness.

He glared at where the arrow had come from. Stomping over, he picked up the entire boulder and was amazed to find that no one was behind it.

"Knight! Where are you?"

Another arrow hit his claw. He winced and sucked in a breath quickly. Pulling it out, he flung it down and crushed it with his palm.

Before going over to check, he did some mental geometry. Every time an attack came, the next would come from about one hundred and sixty degrees to the left…

He whipped around and pounced. A shape in the darkness was pinned down instantly by his mighty claws and the dragon grinned as he saw that he was right.

"I told you knight, you can't fool a drag-…"

His words were stopped as he examined his quarry in the moonlight.

"Oh…not a knight, I see, but a lass?" He didn't lift his claw, however. He had learned to never trust a human that had attacked him so recently in the past.

"As good as a knight! I'll have you know, dragon, that I was quite close to hitting your eye until you moved!" she raged.

"Oh, were you?" he laughed. "That's funny, because I don't count two little shots in my leg and my claw as anywhere near my eye."

He leaned close and smiled. "And I have two eyes, girl. One lost still leaves another to see by."

"I know it too well," she returned, and he was taken aback. Shifting his position, he noticed something he hadn't before. She was wearing a crude eye-patch over her left eye.

"Hmm…so you do. That doesn't change the fact that you have poor aim."

"Having one usable eye can do that to you, you stupid beast." She attempted to free herself, but he wouldn't budge.

"Why on earth would a lass like you want to kill a big hulking 'beast' like me?" he inquired, not too interested. He even lay down, keeping one palm over her at all times.

"Because you…you…"

"Because I have nothing to do with you and you figured I'd be a pushover practice for you to join the knights? I'm sorry missy, but the last time I checked, ladies were not allowed in the Order."

"Shows what you know! A quick haircut and some men's clothing and you're as good as a man! So long as you have the skills, they wouldn't even mention my being a woman!" she fumed, still trying to extricate herself. She had given up pushing his claw off and was now struggling to reach an arrow that had fallen nearby. "Besides, I don't even want to _be_ a knight. I have my own purposes for doing you in!"

The dragon took his other claw away from its position holding his head up and nonchalantly flicked the arrow away. She took one look and gave an exasperated sigh.

"Are you going to eat me or what? I have a lifetime planned, and if you don't kill me, I'll have to kill you. I won't stop."

"And how many times have I heard that? I think I might have had at least twenty people who swore to kill me, of which fifteen have it personal. So you're nothing new, lass."


	2. Pay the Price

"So eat me already," she demanded

"Why?"

"Because I'll be a nuisance."

"All I have to do is fly away."

"And where will you fly to? There are people after your hide. I just want…" Here she stopped, not willing to go on.

"Want what? What?" he inquired, then demanded when she wouldn't answer.

"…I need…your eye."

"My _what_?" The dragon was stunned, almost to the point where he might have let go. But at the last second, he jammed his claw back down on her, knocking her breath away.

"Y-your eye!" she struggled, trying to regain her composure. "A magician in a town near here said that a dragon's eye could be bewitched to become smaller, and someone who has lost theirs could use it. I need it."

The dragon's face was slack. He was amazed. Never before had he heard this!

This news was of black magic, then. Some sort of witchcraft used to manipulate gullible humans into slaying a dragon for a warlock's evil purposes.

"Listen to me, girl, and listen well. No dragon's eye can be used by a human. We see too differently. Dragons see…what humans can not. What humans can't see without unmaking them. For to be human is to not know the divine things that we dragons know.

"A human cursed – yes, _cursed_, not blessed, for a dragon's eye in a human body is naught but a bane – by such a thing would no longer be human. They would be an abomination, sought to die by humans and dragons alike.

"You don't know half of what you speak of, maid. Go back home and be thankful you have one good eye to see by. No dragon's eye can help you."

He released her when he saw that she had stopped struggling. Turning away, he stared at the stars.

"Then…the wizard lied, did he?" she said, shaking.

"Yes. The wizard lied."

"Then…you _are_ just some big, hulking, useless beast. Unfit to curse the countryside. I'll kill you!"

She immediately strung her bow that she lifted from the dirt and released an arrow. It plunged into the spot on the dragon's back that was just above the heart and he gasped for breath. Falling to the ground, he shuddered in pain and groaned.

The girl stood above him, one of her arrows glinting in the moonlight.

"An eye for an eye. Fare thee well, dragon."

With that, she plunged the arrow into his eye socket, aiming to cut the yellow ball loose. The dragon cried out in pain over and over again as she fought his whipping head. Finally, he was about to pass out from the pain.

His right eye watched a blurry figure walk away, holding what looked like a shining, golden orb.

The girl walked on eggshells until reaching a small village at the foot of the mountain she had attacked the dragon on. Searching the roofs of houses, she picked out one that sported a red weathervane and made for it.

Entering the confines of the hut, she realized how much all the whatnots inside of it made the room seem smaller. All the cups and bowls and vials of powders and liquids pressed in on her, driving her towards the back and up to a man who was in his middle-aged stage of life. He wore a brown and black cloak and had a full head of black hair matched with a goatee.

"So you were unsuccessful?" was his first comment to her.

"I brought my end of the bargain. Now you have to uphold yours," she returned, gingerly placing the eye on the table. The pupil had gone so thin, it was naught more than a black line stretching from the top to the bottom of the orb.

The magician started when he saw it. At first, he peered at it, trying to decide whether to touch it or not. Then, very carefully, he probed it with his index finger. Finally, he smiled darkly and turned to the girl.

"This is no dragon's eye, Crea. This is a ball of mangrove fungus, painted with black ash-water. Be off with you and leave the ball here. I need something for my supper, after all."

The wizard turned his back and grinned. Surely she would be off soon, and he could take the eye!

Finally turning back, he watched her retreating figure leave the hut and he looked instinctively at the table where the eye had lain. However, all that was left of it was a moist spot where it had sat.

Crea fought tears as she went, carrying the eye. The magician _had_ lied! He had wanted the eye for himself, with no intention of giving it to her at all! Sending her to do his dirty work and fight a demon, just so he could do some kind of spell! He _was_ a warlock!

She collapsed on the dirty ground, starting to cry. She would never see wholly again! She would wear this ugly eye patch until the day she died; she would never marry, never have children! She could never hope for grandchildren even if she lived long enough! No man would look twice at such a disfigured woman!

Her knees gave way and she fell over the eye, still clutching it for dear life. Tears ran off her cheeks and fell onto the golden orb.

Suddenly, a bright light shone from the pupil of the severed eye. It widened, making the optic look surprised. Crea mirrored its reaction as she scrambled away from it.

The eyeball rose a few inches off the ground and began to spin. As it did, Crea could have sworn that it became smaller. But she did not have long to examine it, for it suddenly stopped gyrating and it shot towards her face, slamming through the eye-patch and implanting itself in her socket. Crea felt an unholy pain behind it and began to pass out, screaming like a banshee.

Her cries echoed up the mountain to a clearing, through which a very angry dragon was stomping. He blinked his right eye and winced as he felt the slimy goo, seeping from behind the thin membrane that had grown over the empty socket, leak into his one present optic.

"…Thing should grow back faster!" he demanded, rubbing the right eyelid. "I want perfect vision when I find that girl and-…"

But his voice was almost drowned out by the cries now reaching his ears. He perked up and listened silently. Grinning, he realized he recognized the voice.

"I hope someone else didn't beat me to her…" he mused as he stretched his wings.

Crea twitched. She rubbed her head and opened her eyes.

Her reflection in a small pool of water next to her startled her. She had to take a moment to focus on it.

She had two eyes! Not a patch over the left one but two eyes, staring back at her two eyes in the reflection!

She almost shouted for joy, but her face fell instantly when she saw that the left one looked like. It was yellowish orange, and the pupil was a slit, like a cat's. It was the dragon's eye she had gouged from that monster!

She gasped and fell on her rear. She blinked over and over again, trying to understand. The wizard didn't do this to her, and she couldn't remember anything before falling to the ground sobbing after realizing the warlock's dirty trick.

Suddenly, she stopped thinking. Something was wrong with the world around her. She saw things she didn't think to be real.

Trees and grass had far more detail than she remembered. The sky was alive with moving color. Even the very air around her seemed to twist with vibrant spectrum that wasn't there.

She blinked hard and tried to focus on it, but she realized she was seeing this new view through her left eye. Straining with her right one could not help ease the issue.

Suddenly, she saw something horrific. A man walking by with a pile of wood on his back had some sort of red cloud hanging about him! Crea closed her right eye and looked at this cloud without interference. It contorted and billowed and floated with him, like a visible aura.

Crea realized what the dragon had spoken about. Humans shouldn't see this sort of thing. It was too much, too deep and intense for her mind to take. The truth hit her like a rock and she screamed and passed out.

The dragon eyed the village below. He rubbed his left eye and realized how much had developed; the membrane had grown thicker and the liquid had stopped oozing. He hadn't seen a reflection yet, but expected the eye to look a milky white with a thin, vertical black line running through it.

Diving, he looked around for the escaped attacker. Noticing her lying on the ground, he smiled and swooped down amongst shouts of "Dragon!" and "Help!" from the villagers. Reaching down and clutching the unconscious girl in his foreclaws, he used his powerful hind legs to push off from the ground and soar into the sky once again.


	3. Don't Cry!

Settling down in the clearing on the mountain, the dragon laid the girl on a boulder and eased himself onto the ground. He rested his jaw on his right palm and cocked his head.

She was unusually pretty for a human, or at least for a peasant. Her hair was a dark mane of brown and it hung loosely over her shoulders and spread out on the rock. She wore a brown dress tinted with red trim and a black hood, along with a rope around her waist to hold the ends of the dress above the ground. A quiver of arrows hung over her shoulder and her bowstring ran opposite from the quiver-strap, holding the intricately carved wooden bow onto her back. In fact, had it not been for her disfigurement before, she'd be decent quarry for some woman-chasing nobleman.

But, the dragon noticed suddenly, she was missing her eye-patch. He resolved just as quickly that it must have had fallen off during the flight. She'd be a bit self-conscious when she awoke, he assumed.

He had thought about eating her. Or at least killing her for taking out his eye. Not that it had any long-lasting effect, but it had _hurt_. He had to transfer _some_ of the pain, didn't he? It was justice!

But as he thought this, he noticed something. Her arms and legs were covered with old scars, probably from working day and night on that old Roman fortress that deceitful King Einon was building on the hill not far from here.

The dragon looked at her face as she began to stir. "Waking already, are you girl?" he inquired somewhat playfully.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes open. "Where…what in the…oh my god!" She took one look at the dragon and fell backwards off the rock.

He had started to laugh at her confusion, but his eyes went wide and his grin slackened when he caught a glimpse of her face now fully awake. He hadn't seen…did he?

He got up and walked over, peering over the side of the boulder. She was cowering behind it, her hands on her head and curled into a ball. She was muttering what he assumed to be a prayer.

"You…you…" he started.

She looked up at his voice and screamed. Clambering away, she tried to crawl over another rock and farther away, but the dragon grasped the back of her dress in his left claw and held her up in front of his face.

"What the…" he began. She grimaced and tried to hide her face, but she eventually dropped her hands and opened her eyes.

The dragon was amazed when he saw her left eye. It looked like…one of his! But how? No magic he knew of could transplant any dragon body part besides beside the heart into a human body.

"How did you get that in your head, girl?"

"I have a name, you know!" she spat at him, swinging her fists and trying to punch him in the face. But she only succeeded in spinning herself in his claw and looking rather foolish.

"I don't honestly care about your name right now, and I won't until you tell me how that eye got into your socket," he demanded.

"I don't know! I can't…I can't remember. But make these sights disappear, dragon! You were right… You were right about everything. I can't stand these new views! They make my head ache and my mouth sore and my back pained and every one of my fingers shake and tingle with pain every time I open my eyes. Please, dragon, make it stop!"

"I can't make it stop, you silly girl. To lose the sight, you have to lose the eye. Pluck it out yourself." The dragon dropped her unceremoniously on the ground and eyed her.

She saw his developing optic and cringed.

"I…I'm sorry for what I did to you… I just…wanted to see again so badly. When the wizard told me he could make it so, I-I lost control. Please forgive me," she implored, looking at the ground.

He was looking down the mountain, towards the village. For a long time, he didn't say anything.

"My eye will grow back," he spoke after a long while had passed. "You can see for yourself." The dragon turned to her and she took in the sight of his yellowing sphere. She nodded and remained tacit.

"You claimed your body hurt, didn't you?" he inquired.

She nodded again. "Yes, my mouth and back and fingers and head. It seems like they're burning alive."

He blinked and sighed. "I know why. But you'll learn soon enough. I won't interfere with divine retribution. You'll know why dragons cannot sacrifice more than half their heart to a human."

She stared at him. Why wouldn't he tell her? Was there some sort of horrible punishment that went along with seeing these terrible apparitions? She noticed he had a golden aura around him, floating gently about his person. It was calming, to say the least, but had with it such a feeling of intense power that she struggled to look at him.

"Half their heart?" she queried, struggling to keep communications open.

"It saves them from the brink of death and grants them immortality, so long as the dragon lives," he returned. The speech held a hint of depression, of regret, that only the most learned of people could detect. Crea, however, had yet to learn of these subtleties.

"Immortality…" she mused, not really considering the idea, but thinking all the same. "Well, I personally wouldn't want that. Worrying night and day of your dragon was locking in a life-or-death struggle, not being able to help the fact that you could drop dead any moment. Someone else sharing your life is a liability, not a strength."

"You may think that, but preach to a dying human offered a dragon's heart. See if they'll convert to your beliefs as they lie on their deathbed, staring up at the face of a dragon. Then you'll know which way the wind blows."

"But _you_ have to agree, too! Why would _you_ want to share your life with a human?"

Her words hurt him more than she knew. He hung his head and she wished to God that she hadn't said it.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, hurriedly making up for her ignorance.

"No…it's not you. Not you."

"But what of the pains? Can't you tell me?" she inquired desperately, dropping the previous subject.

He gave her a mean glare. "You'll find out once your soul is hurt. If you don't want to find out, I suggest you don't cry."

She was overwhelmed, and he could see she was close to tears. "I tell you, don't_ cry_!"

But she was sniffling, failing miserably at holding the droplets back. He reached out and closed his claws around her, shaking her slightly. "For your own sake, _don't cry_!"

She collapsed like a rag doll in his hands, limp and exhausted. He lay her down and suddenly gasped when he saw two tears drip from her left eyes to the ground.


End file.
